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Good to hear you guys have power again before the northeaster hits! Good luck with the cold

My power was restored last night but it's been on/off/on/off for the past 6 hours. Either they're getting more people online or the weather's taking out more trees. I've got the steam heat cranked so that if it goes out again we'll make it through the night.

My power was restored last night but it's been on/off/on/off for the past 6 hours. Either they're getting more people online or the weather's taking out more trees. I've got the steam heat cranked so that if it goes out again we'll make it through the night.

BJ

We live in Ramsey and were w/o power from Monday to Sunday night. Since my office in NYC and our local HS were also powerless, we made the decision to bail on Wednesday morning and head for our beach house in NC.
Our house is an 1890 Victorian, steam heat also, but I have a small 3000kw, very quiet & efficient Honda generator that will run for 20 hours on 3-1/2 gals of gas. I ordered it after last Octobers storm and it is the perfect fit for my needs.
The biggest problem a lot of my neighbors had was finding enough gas for their gen that burned 1/2 gal per hour.

__________________

"Ish...I have in the past mistaken you for a perverted chitbag...now I realize that I am not chitbag enough. You truly are a king among men.I am not worthy with such imagination."
Series 3 Guy - LRO Site

We live in Ramsey and were w/o power from Monday to Sunday night. Since my office in NYC and our local HS were also powerless, we made the decision to bail on Wednesday morning and head for our beach house in NC.
Our house is an 1890 Victorian, steam heat also, but I have a small 3000kw, very quiet & efficient Honda generator that will run for 20 hours on 3-1/2 gals of gas. I ordered it after last Octobers storm and it is the perfect fit for my needs.
The biggest problem a lot of my neighbors had was finding enough gas for their gen that burned 1/2 gal per hour.

Very glad to hear you made it through okay.

I joyride through Ramsey at least once a week, nice town. My house is from 1910 with great steam heat which I couldn't get going. But the gas fireplace kept us warm, the gas stove let us cook, the gas water heater let us wash.

Question: Is your 3000kw generator enough to get the boiler to heat the whole house, keep the refrigerator going, light the rooms, and give you at least 1 TV to watch? In the end, those 10 days without power it really boiled down to those things- whole house steam heat, lights, fridge, 1 TV. Would have been just fine if we had that minimum.

An LCD TV needs about 100-150 watts. High efficiency light bulbs are 10-15 watts each. Newer refrigerator is about 60-150 watts when the compressor is running, which is not all the time.

I can't speak to your other items, but 1000 watt cheap generator from Costco (a good Honda, etc) should be able to provide more than enough power to "live on" for at least several days assuming you have enough fuel to operate it.

//update

This looks like exactly what you need. Runs on natural gas and produces more than enough power to run your entire home for an extended period of time as long as gas lines are still operable... and if those go down it can run on light propane, which should be very readily available at lots of places.

An LCD TV needs about 100-150 watts. High efficiency light bulbs are 10-15 watts each. Newer refrigerator is about 60-150 watts when the compressor is running, which is not all the time.

I can't speak to your other items, but 1000 watt cheap generator from Costco (a good Honda, etc) should be able to provide more than enough power to "live on" for at least several days assuming you have enough fuel to operate it.

//update

This looks like exactly what you need. Runs on natural gas and produces more than enough power to run your entire home for an extended period of time as long as gas lines are still operable... and if those go down it can run on light propane, which should be very readily available at lots of places.

I've got a plumber and an electrician coming later this week to size up my needs and strategize a solution. Must be natural gas, not interested in any gasoline lines. As ish pointed out, not interested in my neighbor's situation where he had to conserve generator usage because it swallowed gasoline so quickly. To your point, I may not need much power because really it's just the boiler to get the radiators warm, a couple dozen lights, and a FiOS DVR/HDTV setup.

I've got a plumber and an electrician coming later this week to size up my needs and strategize a solution. Must be natural gas, not interested in any gasoline lines. As ish pointed out, not interested in my neighbor's situation where he had to conserve generator usage because it swallowed gasoline so quickly. To your point, I may not need much power because really it's just the boiler to get the radiators warm, a couple dozen lights, and a FiOS DVR/HDTV setup.

If boiler and water heat are electric, it will use a LOT of power. A boiler could easily pull 3-5,000 watts or more if it was electric.

The big natural gas genny that Costco is selling is actually a bargain. It puts out 50 amps and provides seamless switchover when utility power is interrupted. It is tied directly into the house mains so its like nothing even happened when the power goes down. That's what I would do if I was concerned about periodic storm outages.

If boiler and water heat are electric, it will use a LOT of power. A boiler could easily pull 3-5,000 watts or more if it was electric.

The big natural gas genny that Costco is selling is actually a bargain. It puts out 50 amps and provides seamless switchover when utility power is interrupted. It is tied directly into the house mains so its like nothing even happened when the power goes down. That's what I would do if I was concerned about periodic storm outages.

The boiler is powered by gas, but electricity is needed to move the damper and air circulator. One of my frustrations for the 10 days we were out of power was that the boiler was warm and the pilot light was lit, just couldn't manually crank it up and get it to provide strong steam.

The hot water heater functioned as if there were no blackout at all during the blackout. Had unlimited hot water, powered by gas as well.

BJ - the 3000 was enough to run 2 ref, 1 LCD tv. Cable Fios box, Internet router, gas fireplace controls and therm and a couple of lights. ( I also ran a toaster, lol ) I didn't connect my boiler because we left town before it got really cold but it could easily handle it as it is just control equip, damper etc.

This unit can also be set up with an ATS, but for now I was running 2 12ga extension cords from my barn to the cellar.

If you have the money for a whole house genset than do that instead, but the Honda was $1800, it has suited my needs, and I can set it up at either house.

__________________

"Ish...I have in the past mistaken you for a perverted chitbag...now I realize that I am not chitbag enough. You truly are a king among men.I am not worthy with such imagination."
Series 3 Guy - LRO Site

BJ - the 3000 was enough to run 2 ref, 1 LCD tv. Cable Fios box, Internet router, gas fireplace controls and therm and a couple of lights. ( I also ran a toaster, lol ) I didn't connect my boiler because we left town before it got really cold but it could easily handle it as it is just control equip, damper etc.

This unit can also be set up with an ATS, but for now I was running 2 12ga extension cords from my barn to the cellar.

If you have the money for a whole house genset than do that instead, but the Honda was $1800, it has suited my needs, and I can set it up at either house.

These types of storms are so rare I'd rather not spend $6K if I don't have to.

The $1800 Honda still requires gasoline....is there a version of it that runs on natural gas or are the only natural gas models very large and thus very expensive?

These types of storms are so rare I'd rather not spend $6K if I don't have to.

The $1800 Honda still requires gasoline....is there a version of it that runs on natural gas or are the only natural gas models very large and thus very expensive?

BJ

BJ did you get in to see your summer home yet? We are going in this coming Saturday to see ours. From the pictures I don't see any damage. They cut off the Electric and Gas so we have to winterize. Good luck
cheers
vern

The Honda runs on gas, but is so much more efficent that all the other, I didn't mind.
3-1/2 gals for 20 hours of run time, I keep the tank full + 3 5 gal cans and I'm good for a long time.
I also now keep a siphon hose in the barn in case I need to take fuel from one of my cars.

I'm not sure about the propane or Nat gas, but google it and see what comes up!

__________________

"Ish...I have in the past mistaken you for a perverted chitbag...now I realize that I am not chitbag enough. You truly are a king among men.I am not worthy with such imagination."
Series 3 Guy - LRO Site

These types of storms are so rare I'd rather not spend $6K if I don't have to.

The $1800 Honda still requires gasoline....is there a version of it that runs on natural gas or are the only natural gas models very large and thus very expensive?

BJ

BJ and all 'Festers,

Glad to hear that most , if not all of you are getting back your power. And life is returning back to somewhat normalcy Just saw on our Local San Diego News, that our local Power company San Diego Gas and Electric sent crews back East to New York and I am assuming New Jersey. They have an agreement with ConEd to provide extra techs to help out in disaster situations. They just got back last night. They had no time off , and were working 16 hour days In fact, I will be in New Jersey from Novemeber 28 to December 14th for Sales Training at my Pharmaceutical Company. We are located in Bridgewater NJ. Fly into Newark. I don't know NJ well, am I anywhere near you guys ? Did that part of NJ have much damage or power problems. I was back there 2 years ago, I am looking forward to a couple weeks on the East Coast. Good luck with all the issues you are all dealing with

Glad to hear that most , if not all of you are getting back your power. And life is returning back to somewhat normalcy Just saw on our Local San Diego News, that our local Power company San Diego Gas and Electric sent crews back East to New York and I am assuming New Jersey. They have an agreement with ConEd to provide extra techs to help out in disaster situations. They just got back last night. They had no time off , and were working 16 hour days In fact, I will be in New Jersey from Novemeber 28 to December 14th for Sales Training at my Pharmaceutical Company. We are located in Bridgewater NJ. Fly into Newark. I don't know NJ well, am I anywhere near you guys ? Did that part of NJ have much damage or power problems. I was back there 2 years ago, I am looking forward to a couple weeks on the East Coast. Good luck with all the issues you are all dealing with

BJ did you get in to see your summer home yet? We are going in this coming Saturday to see ours. From the pictures I don't see any damage. They cut off the Electric and Gas so we have to winterize. Good luck
cheers
vern

My Summer home is up on the coast of Maine, and the people who handle it for me and winterize told me that it came through without a scratch. Storm was just weaker up there.

Hope all is well for you on Saturday. What town? We almost bought in Lavalette last summer.

The Honda runs on gas, but is so much more efficent that all the other, I didn't mind.
3-1/2 gals for 20 hours of run time, I keep the tank full + 3 5 gal cans and I'm good for a long time.
I also now keep a siphon hose in the barn in case I need to take fuel from one of my cars.

I'm not sure about the propane or Nat gas, but google it and see what comes up!

Thanks, will do.

The one blessing that we had during the 10 days we lost power is that we didn't have to wait on any gasoline lines. Just not something I want to do if this ever happens again. Most everything else ran on gas during the blackout, hoping to find a generator that can do likewise. Hopefully they make one that's pretty small.

Glad to hear that most , if not all of you are getting back your power. And life is returning back to somewhat normalcy Just saw on our Local San Diego News, that our local Power company San Diego Gas and Electric sent crews back East to New York and I am assuming New Jersey. They have an agreement with ConEd to provide extra techs to help out in disaster situations. They just got back last night. They had no time off , and were working 16 hour days In fact, I will be in New Jersey from Novemeber 28 to December 14th for Sales Training at my Pharmaceutical Company. We are located in Bridgewater NJ. Fly into Newark. I don't know NJ well, am I anywhere near you guys ? Did that part of NJ have much damage or power problems. I was back there 2 years ago, I am looking forward to a couple weeks on the East Coast. Good luck with all the issues you are all dealing with

Thank you for the kind words, and while no one is talking about it much the effort that was given by the people from out-of-state to repair our problems was fantastic.

I am up in Northern New Jersey, about 30 minutes away from Bridgewater. Bridgewater is a really nice area but inland, I don't think the storm affected it that much down there.

Have a great visit, if you're lonely I can come down and give you a ride in my Luxury liner.

The one blessing that we had during the 10 days we lost power is that we didn't have to wait on any gasoline lines. Just not something I want to do if this ever happens again. Most everything else ran on gas during the blackout, hoping to find a generator that can do likewise. Hopefully they make one that's pretty small.

BJ

Pretty much all of the generator backups that can run on propane and natural gas are pad units that look like an air conditioner, they are typically piped directly in to specific circuits in the house, so that when an electrical interruption is detected they turn on and take over.

Cheaper ones are $1500-$2000 and the more expensive ones can run upwards of $10K. Look at it this way, you are going to spend $500-$1000 or more having it installed (more than likely)... it might not make sense to cheap out on something, that even while it doesn't get used often, you expect it to work even if your next big electrical problem does not happen for 10 years.

Lower end units may or may not provide enough power for the entire home. Your electrician should be able to help you get an idea of your max draw, and ideally you simply get a generator that can handle everything other than really high usage appliances (electric clothes dryer, etc). The bigger/heavier units can put out upwards of 10,000 watts and some of them can also provide power on your 220V circuits so that even electric ovens and clothes dryers continue to operate during an outage.

Worst thing would be to get something with a poor reliability record, go through all of the trouble and then when you have another episode, find out that the unit is no longer functional. Another factor to consider is noise level, some of the cheaper units are quite noisy (think lawnmower engine)... so you might want to get an idea of the relative noise level... your neighbors won't be too happy with you if you have a super loud generator cranking during an extended power outage.

To put it another way, someone in your neighborhood probably has the higher end generator backup and feels, after this storm, that it's the best money they've ever spent.

Pretty much all of the generator backups that can run on propane and natural gas are pad units that look like an air conditioner, they are typically piped directly in to specific circuits in the house, so that when an electrical interruption is detected they turn on and take over.

Cheaper ones are $1500-$2000 and the more expensive ones can run upwards of $10K. Look at it this way, you are going to spend $500-$1000 or more having it installed (more than likely)... it might not make sense to cheap out on something, that even while it doesn't get used often, you expect it to work even if your next big electrical problem does not happen for 10 years.

Lower end units may or may not provide enough power for the entire home. Your electrician should be able to help you get an idea of your max draw, and ideally you simply get a generator that can handle everything other than really high usage appliances (electric clothes dryer, etc). The bigger/heavier units can put out upwards of 10,000 watts and some of them can also provide power on your 220V circuits so that even electric ovens and clothes dryers continue to operate during an outage.

Worst thing would be to get something with a poor reliability record, go through all of the trouble and then when you have another episode, find out that the unit is no longer functional. Another factor to consider is noise level, some of the cheaper units are quite noisy (think lawnmower engine)... so you might want to get an idea of the relative noise level... your neighbors won't be too happy with you if you have a super loud generator cranking during an extended power outage.

To put it another way, someone in your neighborhood probably has the higher end generator backup and feels, after this storm, that it's the best money they've ever spent.

Agreed.

I'll know more later this week when the generator guys come to my house.